


The Dark Outside

by Katherine



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), The Lights Outside the Windows - James White
Genre: Double Drabble, Elements of Ageplay, Fusion, Fusion - The Lights Outside the Windows by James White, Gen, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24184894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: Double Trouble waits alone at the spaceship's window for their first look at space.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The Dark Outside

**Author's Note:**

> Fusion with "The Lights Outside the Windows" by James White, a short story published in _New Worlds Science Fiction_ , #56 February 1957. (There's a [PDF of the issue](https://drive.google.com/file/d/19USoyPLWfHjUVoMMTx0e33A8H82bf2a2/view) at [New Worlds Luminist Archives](http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/NW.htm). The story's at page 100, page 102 of the PDF.)
> 
> There's more darkness hinted here but that happens when one considers Shadow Weaver acting as a mother figure.

Double Trouble waits alone at the spaceship's window for their first look at space. They've been hidden in one guise or another among the trainees. For this they snuck away from all the others (easily, elegantly) to be in their base form, clawed hands touching the glass.

They have been observing the Fright Zone from within, how the children are trained for service in space. Those who would be crew are under the guidance of one who will be their captain. Captain and mother figure, once the trainees brought in as children are bodily old enough for a ship and their minds shaped to regress. The philosophy was evident, that the mother-captain's guiding of crew not be gentle. Life on the space lanes was not, nor the mind-bending mystery of the endless dark outside.

Space is dramatic, deepest black, with the dots of moons and the gleam of their home planet below. Double Trouble feels outer space as immense, and beautiful. They're (perhaps, slightly) queasy, a little ways off balance. But that is nothing like the madness that takes so many at the sight. Double Trouble can be captain, crew, or child-minded as they wish, trying on all possible roles.


End file.
